Okay, so today I messed around with this thing called “blanket volleyball.” It sounded kinda goofy, but I was bored and wanted to get the kids moving. Turns out, it’s pretty fun!
Getting Started
First, I grabbed an old blanket from the closet. It was one of those big, fluffy ones, kinda heavy. I figured that would work best. Then I rounded up the kids – that’s always the hardest part, right?
We headed out to the backyard. I didn’t have a net, so I just draped the blanket over our rickety old clothesline. It wasn’t pretty, but hey, it worked!
Figuring Out the Rules
We kinda made up the rules as we went. I divided the kids into two teams. One kid on each team held a corner of the blanket, so there were four kids holding the blanket at any time.
Then, we tossed a regular volleyball onto the blanket. The idea was to use the blanket to fling the ball over the “net” (a.k.a., the clothesline) to the other team. They had to catch it in their blanket and fling it back. Sounded simple, right?
Total Chaos (But Fun!)
- It was way harder than it looked! The ball kept bouncing off the blanket at weird angles.
- Kids were running all over the place, tripping over each other, and generally causing a ruckus.
- There were lots of drops and laughs.
- We tried different ways of holding the blanket – tighter, looser, higher, lower. Nothing seemed to work perfectly.
Did it work?
Eventually, they started to get the hang of it. They figured out that they needed to work together to control the blanket. They learned to anticipate where the ball would go. It was still chaotic, but there were a few moments of actual volleyball-like action.
By the end, everyone was sweaty and tired, but in a good way. We packed up the blanket and ball, and the kids chattered about how we should play again tomorrow. I agreed, secretly thinking I might need a nap first. Definitely a successful experiment!
